The MINIM-UK project aims to provide a new online database of historic instruments that will allow the public to find out about 20,000 individual instruments held in more than 100 musical instrument collections in the UK.

The project is led by the Royal College of Music, in a partnership with the Royal Academy of Music, the Horniman Museum and Gardens, and the University of Edinburgh.

The resource will launch in October 2017.

The project has received support from both the Higher Education Funding Council for England Catalyst fund, and the Google Cultural Institute, which works to digitally preserve ‘important cultural materials’ internationally.